NBL1 South Recap | Friday Men's Finals Week 1

The Mount Gambier Pioneers are one step closer to an NBL1 South Men's Grand Final appearance in 2022 with a hard earned win at home in Friday night's qualifying final against the Kilsyth Cobras.

The NBL1 South finals got underway on Friday night at The Ice House with the second and third ranked teams locking horns with a chance to host next week's preliminary final at stake.

Kilsyth was able to get off to a flying start but Mount Gambier soon steadied and using the vocal home crowd behind them, ended up prevailing 94-84.

They will now host a preliminary final next Sunday back at The Ice House with a spot in the Grand Final on the line while the Cobras will now host a semi-final to earn a spot in the other preliminary final.

Michael Harris put up 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Pioneers with Nick Marshall contributing 18 points, 16 boards, four rebounds and three steals.

Deng Deng led the charge for Kilsyth with 22 points and seven rebounds.

The other Men's qualifying final in the NBL1 South now takes place on Saturday night with the Hobart Chargers hosting the Sandringham Sabres at Southern Tasmania Netball Centre.

The elimination finals feature the Bendigo Braves at home to the Knox Raiders, and the Frankston Blues playing the Geelong Supercats.

Meanwhile in the Women's competition, the Bendigo Braves and Nunawading Spectres, and the Ringwood Hawks and Mount Gambier Pioneers feature in the two qualifying finals.

The elimination final match ups are between the Knox Raiders and Waverley Falcons, and Geelong Supercats and Launceston Tornadoes.

NBL1 SOUTH – 2022 MEN'S SEASON
FINALS WEEK 1 – FRIDAY NIGHT

QUALIFYING FINAL
MOUNT GAMBIER PIONEERS 94 defeated KILSYTH COBRAS 84

Precious little separated the Mount Gambier Pioneers and Kilsyth Cobras by the end of the NBL1 South regular season and as a result it was no surprise to see them play out such a hard fought qualifying final match up on Friday night.

Mount Gambier finished the NBL1 South regular season in second position and Kilsyth third with both ending up on identical 16-6 records.

The Pioneers finished the higher, though, courtesy of a superior percentage which earned them home court advantage for Friday night's qualifying final against the Cobras at The Ice House.

It was the visiting Kilsyth who got off to an impressive start with Corey Jeffs scoring seven straight points to help them to a 12-6 lead before Mount Gambier were able to steady and work their way on top.

By the time Michael Harris pulled off a steal on Jamie Ahale and got it out to a breaking Tom Kubank for a dunk, the Pioneers had regained the lead at 14-12 which soon became 19-12 on the back of their run of scoring 13 consecutive points.

That saw Mount Gambier still lead 24-16 by quarter-time and they were able to pull away further in second term to lead by as much as 19 points on the back of another 9-0 run.

That saw the Pioneers on top at home 52-38 at half-time and while they did maintain a double-figure lead for most of the second half, the Cobras did continue to fight hard to keep things interesting and threatened a fight back on multiple occasions.

However, it wasn’t to be and the Pioneers proved too strong to end up winning 94-84 to move straight into a home preliminary final and leaving the Cobras now to beat either Bendigo or Knox next week in a home semi-final to reach their own preliminary final against either Hobart or Sandringham.

It was quite the impressive overall shooting performance on the night from the Pioneers as they went 37/70 from the field at 52.9 per cent opposed to 32/79 at 40.5 per cent from Kilsyth.

Fresh off signing on as a development player with the Perth Wildcats, Michael Harris had a standout night for the Pioneers even if his outside shot wasn’t falling. He still contributed 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals while shooting 8/11 inside the arc and 1/10 outside it.

Nick Marshall also contributed 18 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and three steals for Mount Gambier, Tom Kubank 17 points and six boards, Kane de Wit 13 points and seven assists, Jordan Rawls 12 points, and Clevon Brown 11 points, six rebounds and two massive blocked shots.

The Cobras did sorely miss Trey Moses from the line-up as they attempted to win on the road but Deng Deng had a strong night with 22 points, seven rebounds, two steals and a huge block.

Adrian Tomada added 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Tim Lang 13 points and eight boards, Jamie Ahale 12 points and three rebounds, and Mitch Dielemans 10 points and two assists.